Monday, November 09, 2015

Study Bibles for Expositors--English Standard Version (ESV) by Crossway

The next study Bible on the list is the English Standard
Version (ESV) published by Crossway, a division of Good News Publishers,
Wheaton, Illinois. The ESV was initially
published in 2001 however the Study Bible was published in 2011. If you are a Bible reader and are familiar
with other translations, it won’t take you long to realize that the ESV closely
resembles the New American Standard Bible.
There are not a lot of changes between to the two to the casual reader. I am certain that it you made a comparison
with charts and diagrams and so forth that there would be some notable
differences between the two of them.
Before going further I would like to point out my usual disclaimer that
just because I am a reader of this particular translation it does not mean that
I can entirely endorse everything about the ESV Study Bible. I look at it as simply being another tool in
the toolbox of one who desires to be serious about the exposition of Scripture
in his preaching.

TABLE OF
CONTENTS/VARIOUS LIST DESCRIPTIONS:The first thing that you have to give a thumbs up to in this Study Bible
is the Table of Contents and the Lists of Illustrations, Charts and Diagrams,
and Maps.As I have labored through the
book of Acts, the charts, diagrams and maps have been extremely helpful to
me.I think one thing that adds to your
work in the pulpit is familiarity with biblical geography.When I look at these maps, I generally try to
make associations to cities near Dothan, Alabama.For instance, I have said in the past that
Bethany was about as far from Jerusalem as Ashford, Alabama is to Dothan.There have been other times as I have
preached through the life of Elijah and David that I would say, the went about
200 miles which would be like us traveling from Dothan to Birmingham and then I
add that they traveled on the back of an animal or they walked.This shores up a point in the mind of those
who are hearing you preach.The maps in
the ESV are very well done as far as detail, color, and ability to determine
distances.There are at least 200 maps
that you will find in the ESV Study Bible.

I have also used the charts fairly extensively especially in
my Acts series.Several of these
are:Progress of God’s Word in Acts,
Major Events in the Life of the Apostle Paul, Itinerary of Paul’s Second
Journey, Major Sermons in Acts, and Itinerary of Paul’s Third Journey.All of these charts not only enhance what you
are preaching but it also has the ability to increase the attempt of the
mastery of the Scriptures which will never happen but the Scriptures end up
mastering the workman.That is why I am
such a proponent of expository preaching.If you only solely do topical or textual preaching or variations of
that, the preacher generally ends up just recycling what he already knows
whereas the expository method in itself forces the workman to dig into parts of
Scripture that he otherwise would not.

One last area that is also very helpful is the
Illustrations.This is another area that
will increase the knowledge level of the expositor.When I was working through the series on the
Tabernacle, the ESV Study Bible had an overall picture of the Tabernacle tent
but it also had pictures of each individual piece of furniture that was in the
Tabernacle.Sometimes when you read Scripture
you can get a picture of it in your mind but when it is drawn out in the form
of a picture and you can work in tandem with reading it and seeing a very good
illustration it will improve your work.

USER’S GUIDE:This section is excellent!I know that in the past I always had a
tendency to blow right on by the forward, preface, and so forth but you cannot
afford to do so with the ESV Study Bible.There are many enriching and critical tips that they will bring to your
attention.One area in the User’s Guide
that particularly stands out is where they state the purpose of the study
notes.As you read through the purpose
of the notes, it causes you to be more inclined to looking for that as you read
through the actual biblical text.If you
have college students that you pastor, they most likely in a very hostile
environment that is anti-God, anti-Bible, and anti-Christianity and there are
responses that are given to some of those challenges that your students are
having to endure in the classroom. Because of my medical background, I ran into a
number of physicians who were outright atheists.Initially they intimidated me but as I grew
older and began to really dig into the veracity and authenticity of the
Scripture and the existence of God.My
common response to those I would engage with was, “You aren’t smart enough to
be an atheist!”The ESV Study Bible is a
very good apologetic tool to help you in this area.

Another very excellent resource to have available to you
that comes with the purchase of this study Bible is the complete access to an
on-line version of the ESV.One
particular area that stands out to me at this point is the reading plans that
are available to you, the reader.The
area that is called “Praying the Psalms” is a very good resource that will
deepen your prayer life.While I have
only recently seen this particular plan, I have routinely worked through the
Psalms as a prayer pattern for some time now.That has been another benefit I gleaned when I purposely began to preach
through the Psalms.

ARTICLES:Another huge resource that I have enjoyed is
the multiple articles that are written in the back of the ESV Study Bible.There is one that has been very helpful to me
over the years.It is by John Piper,
“Reading the Bible in Prayer and Communion with God” and it further explores
the aspect of mixing Scripture with prayer.R. Kent Hughes also wrote “Reading the Bible for Preaching and Public
Worship” that encourages you to read Scripture well in worship services.We should be appalled at the lack of
Scripture that really goes into our worship services.It Scripture is “God-breathed” we should make
room for the public reading of Scripture as Paul encouraged Timothy to do (1
Tim. 4:13).We as ministers can do much
to cause those we serve to honor and revere the Word and this is one of the
ways to do so.It needs to be noted
that the articles are not in the personal size ESV Study Bible.

BOOK
INTRODUCTIONS/OUTLINES:The book
introductions and the outlines of the biblical text are rich goldmines for a
preacher.As you read and contemplate
the way another writer has outlined the Scripture it can set your mind on fire
with things that need to be preached
and must be preached!This is particularly true as you read the
warnings that are noted in the outline from the epistle to the Hebrews.I have also found the material surrounding
the epistles of Peter to be very helpful also.

DISLIKES:There were some things that I did not like
about the ESV Study Bible. (PLEASE NOTE: THE FOLLOWING COMMENTS HAVE TO DO WITH THE STUDY NOTES AND NOT THE ACTUAL ESV TRANSLATION ITSELF.) One of those
matters is that it is claimed of the study notes to have been written from an “evangelical”
standpoint but you find all through it the proponents of Calvinism to be very
strong and so the ESV has a bent toward theology that will be more
Reformed although the Reformed crew might have some debate about it.While there are other study
Bibles that have a stronger reformed bent to them, the ESV Study Notes are not without some
of those tones.It also has a very strong
Trinitarian view to it which as a Oneness believer this is an unacceptable matter
for me.However, I have been reading
with a filter for a long time and this has been a common obstacle for me for a
long time so I cannot say that it had any effect on me at all.I would be concerned for those who are not as
doctrinally well versed that would pick up this study Bible.Having said that I did read the articles that
were written on the Trinity and viewing them from a fair academic standard they
were helpful to see where my doctrinal opponents come from.That is always helpful so that an effective
response can be given in return to their objections to our doctrinal beliefs on
the nature of God and His work in with man.The last dislike has to do with the sheer size of this Bible.It feels as if you are lugging around a bag
of sugar.

Thanks for reading!I
will get around to doing some more Study Bible reviews as the week
progresses.

5 comments:

Shaun
said...

I own an ESV journaling Bible along w/ my KJV. I had not noticed the Trinity or Reformed bias (yet), thank you for that. I will say as to Acts 2:38, the phrasing of the ESV makes it easier to prove it to evangelicals. Regarding the Oneness doctrine, is the NKJV the best option to the KJV? Love you blog, has been a major help in my life!

I love your blog and I read it almost daily. I was wondering if you had some good recommendations on books for young ministers starting out that help as Bible study tools. Also what is the best way to go about no taking while reading the Bible?